Alwaght- The hardline Israeli cabinet that has stirred massive waves of protests across the occupied territories with its controversial plans at the same time escalates tensions with the Palestinians. Settlers who contrary to the other Israeli citizens back all of the contentious government plans and laws have undertaken part of the violence project against the Palestinians.
Though the UN and world countries call on the Israeli officials to end their adventures in the West Bank, figures suggest that with the assumption of power by the far-right, the security circumstances in the West Bank are heading to deterioration as a result of the growing settlers’ violence against the Palestinians under the support of the radical cabinet. The violence has caused constant clashes since Benjamin Netanyahu took the power again about seven months ago after a coalition with ultra-orthodox parties.
The UN recently in a report pointed to a rise in the violence against the Palestinians in the West Bank in the first half of the year. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Friday stated that in the first six months of this year, in documented 591 attacks by the settlers that led to injuries to Palestinians or damages to their properties.
Jens Laerke, deputy spokesperson to the OCHA, said: “In the first six months of 2023, the UN has recorded 591 settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage or both. That's a monthly average of 99 incidents this year.
"Palestinian herding communities are particularly vulnerable to these and other settlement activities. This year and last, OCHA has documented the displacement of at least 399 people from settler violence, from seven Palestinian herding communities across the occupied Palestinian territory. Three of these communities are now completely empty,” he went on.
His report added: "The reason for the herders leaving, what they cite most often, is settler activities, including violence and settlement expansion, which results in the loss of their access to grazing land.
Other reasons include the threat of demolition of their homes and other property by the Israeli authorities.”
Many communities across the West Bank “are at risk of forcible transfer due to a coercive environment that includes the demolitions, settler activities and other practices.”
"For the record: Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. They deepen humanitarian needs due to their impact on people's livelihoods, food security and access to essential services,” he continued.
The Resistance to Settlement organization in a July report said that in the first half of this year, 1148 violence cases by settlers were reported, leading to death of 8 Palestinians. A Member of Defense for Children International held that since start of this year, the Israelis killed 31 Palestinian children in the West Bank and 6 in the Gaza Strip.
In the statistics published by the UN and other human rights organizations, there is no mention of the crimes of the occupation army, which if we add them to this list, it shows a horrific number. At the beginning of July, the Israeli army attacked the Jenin camp from the ground and air. In three days, more than 800 Palestinian houses were destroyed and 12 people were killed and dozens of others were injured.
The settler violence against the Palestinians has surfed to a level that even the US as the staunch backer of the Israeli government voiced its protest. The Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs Andrew P. Miller said that immediate actions need to be taken for ceasefire. He continued that the White House was deeply concerned about West Bank security conditions and this is worrisome to the security of the occupied territories.
Settlers an instrument in the hand of Ben-Gvir
Although the settlers have always killed the Palestinians and committed violence against them in the past decades, since the hardline government of Netanyahu has taken power, the violence has increased and taken new dimensions.
A look at the developments in the occupied territories over the past seven months makes it clear that the settlers have taken dictates from National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gvir who is not afraid to say he has no aim but to annihilate the whole Palestinians. In recent racist remarks, he asserted that any Israeli settlers who kill Palestinians are worth praising as “heroes.” Such escalatory remarks allow fire-at-will settlers to kill Palestinians without any justification and be sure that they have the government backing.
In the past seven months, Ben-Gvir has several times desecrated the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque, triggering world anger. He even has taken part in “flag marches” in the occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem) to provoke the Palestinians and sink the West Bank in a tense security atmosphere to advance his plans.
Having been disappointed to check the resistance groups in the West Bank, hardline cabinet has devised new initiatives, including arming the settlers to fight resistance groups. Though the initiative has not come into effect yet, arming hundreds of radical settlers will severely strain the West Bank security situation and cause massive clashes.
Cabinet ministers have even approved the plan to develop new settlements in the West Bank, which has no other purpose than to expel Palestinians from their land. The Knesset, which is under the control of extremists, recently passed a law that allows the Israeli authorities to consider a lesser punishment for the Israeli citizens for some crimes and punish the Palestinians even harder for the same actions.
Amnesty International earlier in a report shed light on the Israeli anti-Palestinian apartheid, saying that discriminatory approach of the Israeli regime in laws that affect the Palestinians across the occupied territories has strengthened.
Resistance groups and tit-for-tat equation
While the Israeli radicals are seeking to pave the way for settlement and full Judaization of Al-Quds through escalation of the violence in the West Bank, resistance leaders have warned against any adventure by the occupiers in the West Bank and Gaza. But since Netanyahu and his cabal have proven inattentive of these warnings, in recent weeks resistance groups have realized their threats, launching operations in the settlements on a daily basis.
Resistance groups now talk about equation of reciprocal response. Hazem Qassem, the spokesman for Hamaso, on Sunday morning in reaction to an operation in Tel Aviv that killed an Israeli and injured two others said: “The Resistance has established the equation of response to the crimes of the occupiers.” He continued that these operations are “a natural response” to the crimes of the occupiers who have broadened the domain of their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and have “stepped up religious war against our sanctities in the occupied Al-Quds.”
From another aspect, the Israeli radicals have resorted to escalation while the army is in its weakest point in years and is grappling with an internal crisis. The army structure has fallen apart in recent months as a result of government approving judiciary overhaul. Over 10,000 reserve forces, including reserve pilots, said that they do not obey the government and do not show up for service. The security forces even several times blocked entry to the West Bank of extremist settlers for warmongering.
As the settlers and extremist ministers’ violence increases in the West Bank and Gaza, so do the operations of the resistance groups to punish the occupying enemy, and tit-for-tat policy will be adopted, and this for a regime stuck in a deep quagmire of political, social, and economic crises has no happy ending.
